Gay rights groups angry with Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani, the thrice-married former New York City mayor, has come out strongly against Democratic Gov. David Paterson's proposed gay marriage bill.

Giuliani's opposition, articulated in an interview with The New York Post published Monday, was widely interpreted as an attempt by the moderate Republican to position himself for a possible run for the party's 2010 New York gubernatorial nomination.

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Same-sex marriage is shaping up as a hot-button 2010 issue both in New York and nationally, and Giuliani's comments generated a quick backlash from gay rights groups, which had considered Giuliani an ally during his days in Gracie Mansion.

Steve Ralls, spokesman for Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, asserted Giuliani was "staking out positions simply for political gain" and called his stance "an almost unprecedented flip-flop for a politician who was once viewed as one of the most moderate, and most gay-friendly, voices in the Republican Party."

Joe Solmonese, president of the powerful gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement: “One would think that Rudy would understand the importance of having the chance, or in his case, the chances, to marry the one you love. But more importantly, according to today’s Siena poll he’s as much out of touch with [New York] voters on this issue, as he was with Republican primary voters on every other issue.”

But Gregory Angelo, a New York spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, sounded willing to give Giuliani the benefit of the doubt.

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“Giuliani has been a friend of this organization in the past, and we would certainly welcome him as a friend of this organization now and in the future,” said Angelo, whose group represents gay Republicans and supports same sex marriage.

“Republicans are more and more supporting marriage,” he said, taking issue with the characterization of Giuliani’s comments to the Post as signaling a possible campaign strategy. “The story was trying to paint the mayor’s position as trying to create a wedge issue and I don’t think that was the case. I don’t think there is going to be as a backlash and we just disagree with using marriage as a strategy.”

Giuliani has long supported civil unions for gay couples and in 1998 granted benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees. While he has positioned himself as an opponent of same-sex marriage since at least his aborted 2000 Senate run against Hillary Clinton, he has not actively campaigned on the issue, an approach that left social conservatives uneasy with his 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination.